Compensation Benchmarks for Nonprofits
Your board asked for comparables. Here is what to put in front of them.
Named peer organizations from IRS Form 990 filings, each with its reported pay and filing year, and where your figure falls among them.
On a board or compensation committee? See how a comparables review works →
One position for the board: $349, one time, no subscription. Plans from $49/month. See plans →
| Organization | Location | FY | Total comp |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Harbor Light Community Trust | Portland, OR | 2024 | $209,900 |
| 2Northfield Care Alliance | Gresham, OR | 2025 | $206,900 |
| 3Emberline Community Works | Hillsboro, OR | 2024 | $203,300 |
| 4Silverbrook Youth Alliance | Tigard, OR | 2024 | $191,800 |
| 5Willamette Bridge Collective | Eugene, OR | 2025 | $189,100 |
| 6The figure under review (Northgate Harbor Alliance, sample) | $182,200 | ||
Sits above 15 of 20 named peers
P25 $163,980 · P50 $182,200 · P75 $204,064
Illustrative sample. Fictional organizations and figures. A subscriber's set is drawn from public Form 990 filings for the role, budget size, sector and state entered.
What should our next Executive Director earn at a human-services nonprofit in Oregon like ours?
Modeled median $182,200, with a P25 to P75 range of $163,980 to $204,064. The named peer set has 20 organizations, and that median sits above 15 of them.
Source: CauseComp executive benchmark · IRS Form 990 filings
Illustrative sample. Fictional organizations and figures. The connector is included with Professional.
The question on every Form 990
Your 990 asks how you set executive pay. The answer is public.
Form 990, Part VI, line 15 asks whether your process for setting executive pay used independent review, comparability data and documentation made at the time. Boards meet that question at three points in the year.
Hiring an executive director.
The search committee needs a range before it makes an offer, not after.
Annual review and raises.
The committee approves a figure and records what it relied on.
990 time.
Someone has to describe the process, and the comparables behind it, in Schedule O.
For the compensation committee
Reasonable compensation is a process the board records.
Under the intermediate sanctions rules (IRC §4958), an executive who receives an excess benefit owes a 25% excise tax, rising to 200% if it is not corrected. Board members who knowingly approve it can owe 10%, up to $20,000 per transaction. The regulation sets three conditions for a presumption that pay is reasonable: advance approval by an independent body, reliance on comparability data, and documentation made at the time. CauseComp supplies the comparability data and the documentation of how it was drawn.
Under $1 million in gross receipts? The regulation sets a lower bar: data on three comparable organizations in the same or similar communities.
Our 2026 nonprofit compensation report sets out what the filings show across sectors and budget sizes.
Walk through a comparables review →
Documented comparability data supports — but does not by itself establish — a board's rebuttable presumption of reasonableness under IRC §4958 (intermediate sanctions). The presumption also requires advance approval by an independent board body and contemporaneous documentation. CauseComp provides comparability data for informational purposes and does not provide legal or tax advice.
Your numbers, not a national average.
For the board
Executive pay, with named peers
Percentile ranges for your ED and C-suite, modeled from Form 990 compensation records for organizations of your budget size, sector and state. Figures are used as filed unless you choose to project them forward.
What you hand over: a named peer set of up to 20 organizations from their three most recent filing years · a board-ready PDF with a methodology appendix · the Executive Excel workbook (Professional)
Available on: one position, Board Report $349 one time · every role, Professional $83/month billed annually
Open Executive benchmarksFor budget season
Pay for the other 95% of your team.
Market ranges for 850+ roles from federal BLS wage data, with metro-level geography, seniority tiers and a nonprofit / private-sector toggle.
What you hand over: salary ranges by role and metro · an Excel export for your budget model · role descriptions for every role in the library
Available on: Essential $49/month billed annually, and included in Professional. Two free searches with an account.
Open Workforce benchmarksBuilt for AI-first use · Professional
The same benchmarks, inside the AI tools you already use.
Ask in plain language. The figures come from CauseComp, not from the model, so every answer carries the same percentiles, data vintage and disclaimer you would see on the site. If an input does not match the data, you get a correction with the valid options, not a guess.
How it works
Modeled, not averaged, and documented in the open.
Describe the role.
Position, budget size, state or metro, sector.
Get your benchmark.
Percentiles calibrated to organizations like yours — not a national average.
Take it to the board.
Excel exports from Essential up, board-ready PDF on Professional — with the methodology documented on every page.
IRS Form 990 and 990-EZ filings (Schedule J and Part VII) sourced directly from the IRS, BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics, the Employment Cost Index, and O*NET.
Estimates adjust for budget size, sector and geography, but not for filing year: filings are used as filed, and you can project the figures to a date you choose.
Every board report carries a methodology appendix and every Excel export a Methodology sheet, and we publish our own analyses of the Form 990 corpus from the same data. See the methodology →
CauseComp is listed in the SHRM Vendor Directory.
Who's behind CauseComp
Built by a compensation consultant, not just a data team.
CauseComp was built by the founder of RB Consulting Services — a career executive compensation consultant with two decades on both sides of the table, from S&P 500 compensation committees to nonprofits ranging from local organizations to global NGOs. Every benchmark reflects the discipline a board engagement demands: documented peer logic, transparent sources, numbers built to withstand scrutiny.
Complex packages, multi-entity organizations, board disputes, IRS inquiries — when the software isn't enough, get in touch with a compensation consultant with decades of executive comp experience. Professional subscribers get their subscription credited toward a full engagement.
Questions
Answers before you sign up.
Where does the data come from?
Executive benchmarks: IRS Form 990 filings — the compensation disclosures nonprofits are required to file every year (Schedule J and Part VII, including 990-EZ filers) — sourced directly from the IRS. Workforce benchmarks: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage surveys (OEWS, ECI, ECEC) and O*NET. Estimates are modeled to your budget size, sector, and location. Workforce wages are aged to the current period on the BLS Employment Cost Index; executive figures are served as filed unless you elect to project them forward.
How current are the numbers?
The underlying filings and surveys refresh on their federal publication cycles, and we refresh our data quarterly. Every report shows its data vintage.
Is this a substitute for a compensation consultant?
CauseComp gives you the same data foundation a consultant would use, and for many organizations that's all they need. It isn't professional advice, and for complex situations we'll tell you honestly when you need a professional — you can book one directly through the site.
We're a small nonprofit. Do we need a subscription?
Not always. It depends on how often you'll need an answer. Essential is $49/month billed annually and covers workforce benchmarks across 850+ roles plus executive estimates modeled to your budget size, sector, and location. If you have exactly one position to document and don't expect to look again, buy the one-time Board Report ($349) instead. If you change your mind within 90 days, the $349 is credited toward Professional.
Can our board use this to document the reasonableness process?
Professional's §4958 comparables sets and board-ready PDFs are built for the comparability-data prong of that process.
Which plan includes the §4958 comparables and the board PDF?
Professional, or the one-time Board Report for a single position. Essential includes executive benchmark estimates and workforce data, but not comparables sets or board PDFs.
Why are executive figures from past filing years?
Form 990s are filed after the fiscal year closes and published later, so the most recent filings are usually one to two years old. We use them as filed, show the filing year on every row, and let you project figures to a date you choose.
We're a small organization. Is a full peer set necessary?
Organizations under $1 million in gross receipts face a lower bar in the regulation: data on three comparable organizations in the same or similar communities. A Board Report gives you a named set to choose from.
Is our data confidential?
We never sell your queries or organization details, and we never share them with other customers. We do use a small set of service providers to run CauseComp - payment, email, analytics and error monitoring - each of which handles only what it needs to; they are named in our Privacy Policy. Benchmarks are built from public filings and federal surveys.